"The Lottery" is a story, which portrays an "average" New England village with "average" citizens engaged in a deadly rite. There is an annual selection of a sacrificial victim by means of a public lottery which is quite deviously written: not until well along in the story is it suspected that the "winner" will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. Jackson writes very matter-of-factly with no sympathy and oddly places her story in a nice happy environment. The story was evidentially written to shock the reader.

"The Lottery," is based on following tradition and for the reason to inspire the villagers with a magical fear tha

t their lack of participation will make them vulnerable to a lack in crop productivity for the upcoming year. Jackson writes, "there used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon'"(232). Old Man Warner creates tension in the village people about keeping up this tradition to assure good crop. The shocking factor is that such rituals do not need to involve human sacrifice.

In the past, many catastrophic events took place during an era when people acted barbarically. Not realizing their wrong doing, normal small- town communities took pride in what seemed pagenistic rituals all for the sake of beliefs and tradition. In the short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson demonstrates irony in a small New England town, which by "lottery" yearly murders one of their own town's people.

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Approximate Word count = 722
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)